Method of production of knitted fabrics or articles from elastic yarns or threads



Patented Aug. 4, 1936 UNITED STATES 2,049,845 .METHOD OF PRODUCTION OF KNITTED FABRICS 0R ARTICLES FROM YARNS OR THREADS ELASTIC Lionel John Lepine, Southport, England No Drawing. Application August 7, 1935, Serial The invention relates to the production of knitted fabrics or articles from yarns or threads composed of a combination of rubber latex or other similar elastic substance with textile material or fibres, said composite yarns or threads comprising an elastic inner core provided with an outer covering or sheathing of textile material. 4 In the knitting of such goods it has heretofore been found necessary, in order to enable the satisfactory use of the rubber component in the knitting machine, and to afford greater convenience, in subsequent dyeing processes, to employ a thread of cut rubber or extruded rubber latex which has previously been subjected to a special preparatory operation. In some cases the rubber thread has been cabled, and in others it has been twisted together with a textile covering or sheathing thread, before being wound upon bobbins or spools for use in the knitting machine.

Apart from the substantial increase in the cost of manufacture entailed by the aforesaid preparatory operations, a more serious disadvantage accrues from the fact that such operations produce considerable variations in the tension, and consequently in the elasticity of the rubber component of the combined thread, resulting in undesirable inequalities and an irregular appearance of theknitted goods.

vide an improved method of and means for producing knitted fabrics or articles of the kind referred to, whereby the necessity for the aforesaid preparatory operations upon the elastic yarn or thread is obviated, whilst ensuring that the surface of the finished goods will resemble in feel that of a pure textile fabric and have a consistently attractive appearance due to the uniformity of tension and elasticity of the component materials, the necessary cover for subsequent dyeing operations being also provided.

it According to the invention, the fabric or article is knitted from an elastic filament, as of rubber latex or like substance, with one or more textile covering yarns or threads, said filament and said covering yarns of threads being severally and independently presented to the machine in a condition of suitable tension and after suitable lubricatory treatment of one or more of the said components, the covering of the elastic component by the textile material being effected by the knitting operation in the machine.

It is essential that the respective materials should be passed to the machine needles at a uniform tension, and this condition entails cer- The object of the present invention is to pro- In Great Britain November 16,

6 Claims. (01. 66-125) tain essential precautions in their preparation and the method of their feeding to the machine. In regard to the elastic component, this may be prepared by extruding rubber latex into filaments in the customary manner, coating said filaments with chalk to prevent their cohering,

and winding them upon spools or containers ofsuitable form, preferably of inverted conical type. In the winding operation it is important that the filaments be maintained as free as possible from tension.

When required for knitting, the filaments are unwound from the containers above referred to, the latter being handled carefully without touching the filament and the state of freedom from tension being maintained throughout, and they are then passed through a bath or baths of a suitable liquid lubricant adapted to facilitate the,

subsequent passage of the rubber filaments over the metal surfaces of the machine needles and also to lay or fix the chalk particles'upon the filaments in such manner-as to prevent the clogging or other interference with the proper working of the needle latches and associated parts of the machine' The filaments are led through the lubricant bath or baths in suchfashion as to introduce acertain predetermined degree of tension and-after lubrication they are passed to the needles of the machine by the shortest possible route, being simultaneously collected with the T textile covering material at a convenient point by passing all the components through a common eye or guide. The lack of tension in the filaments throughout their existence up to the lubricatory treatment ensures that their tension,

at the instant of their presentation to the machine needles, may be evenly regulated and maintained uniformly at the required degree.

The tension may be regulated by adjusting. the

position of the eye or guide through which the filaments are passed on leaving the lubricating bath; so as to'impart the requisite degree of drag? to the former. It is sufficient for the purpose of the invention to lead the textile covering materials to the machine-needles through the same eye or guide, without preliminarily winding said textile covering about the elastic filament, since the desired inter-twisting of the respective component materials is a natural consequence of the operation of knitting.

Alternatively, where it is desired to provide a.

more complete covering of the elastic filament, as when dealing with fine counts of material, the textile covering material may be combined with the elastic filament before the latter enters the bath ofthe lubricant, and for this purpose the covering material, wound on inverted conical containers, may be arranged tandem fashion of the methods instanced above it is essential that the textile-covering material be as free as possible from tension, although just taut, when fed into the machine.

Various kinds of textile material, e. g. cotton, wool, silk, artificial silk or wool may be employed, either singly or in combination, as the textile covering material for the elastic thread, .and if desired more than one thread of textile material may be knitted upon or'around a single elastic thread, one of the threads of textile material being lubricated and all the textile threads being collected through a common eye or guide before passing to the needles. 'Accordingly the rubber yarn or elastic thread is separate from the covering threads so that it is free to contract until there is no more tension.

The lubricant bath may be of any suitable construction and arrangement. In one suitable form of lubricator, the filament and/or the covering thread is or are passed over a wick supplied with lubricant from a convenient reservoir.

- The lubricant itself may be of soap solution or other saponaceous liquid of suitable viscosity and such as to be innocuous to all the component materials, both rubber and textile, of the knitted fabric. It should also be capable of being scoured out of "the fabric preparatory to dyeing or other subsequent treatment. Two alternative lubricants, suitable for use in knitting goods composed of rubber latex and artificial silk, are

tri-cresyl phosphate and 'a solution of ,potash soap .in methylated spirits, respectively.'

When dyeing knitted fabrics or articles produced by the method herein described, 'it is important that the dyeing medium should contain no oils and that there should be no copper present either in the dye-bath itself orjthe dyeing medium. The temperature should. not be allowed to reach boiling-point, and the dyed articles or fabric should not be pressed or squeezed in the hot state.

What I claim as: my invention, and desire to secure bylLetters Patent, is:

1. The method. of production of knitted fabrics or articles from filaments or threads of rubber latex or like elastic substance in combination with a covering of one or more textile yarns or threads, which consists in continuously lubricating certain of the components, presenting all the components to the-machine severally and'in-' free from tension and then uniformly subjected to the requisite degree of tension immediately 1 prior to such combination, lubricating certain of such components and presenting the same to the machine, the covering of the elastic component by the textile material being eifected by the knitting operation in the machine.

3. The method of production of knitted fabrics or articles from filaments or threads of rubber latex or like elastic substance in combination with a covering of one or more textile yarns or threadsgwhich consists in lubricating certain 20 of such components with a substance adapted to prevent clogging of the machine parts by extraneous matters present upon the component materials, and presenting such components in a condition of suitable tension, severally and inde- 25 pendentiy, to the machine needles, the covering of the elastic filament by the textile material being effected by the knitting operation in the machine.

4. The method of production of knitted fab- 30 rics or articles from filaments or threads of rubber latex or like substance in combination with a covering of one or more textile yarns or threads, which consists in passing a uniformly tensioned elastic filament axially through a hollow container carrying a textile covering thread, drawing oi the latter so as to wind it about the elastic filament, lubricating certain of the component materials and presenting them to the machine needles for knitting together, the final covering of the elastic filament by the textile material being effected by such knitting operation.

5. The method of production of knitted fabrics or articles, as claimed in claim 4, which consists in combining with the lubricated materials a supplementary textile thread and presenting the combined-components to the knitting mahine wherein all the textile component materials are utilized to provide the necessary covering for the elastic filament.

6. The method of production of knitted fabrics or articles from filaments or threads of rubber latex or like elastic substance in combination with a covering of one or more textile yarns or threads, which consists in continuously lubricating certain of the components, uniformly tensioning the elastic filaments, twisting the components together .by continuously windingthe textile material aboutthe elastic filaments in their passage towards the machine, and knit- 

